U.S. Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) introduced the Stopping Partisan Policy at the Library of Congress Act, H.R. 4926, on Thursday that would reverse a new Library of Congress policy to drop the terms “alien” and “illegal alien” as subject headings.
The Library of Congress announced in March that it would no longer use the terms as subject headings in its materials because they had been deemed “pejorative.”
“This needless policy change by the Library of Congress embodies so much of what taxpayers find enraging about Washington,” Black, a member of the House Border Security Caucus, said. “By trading common-sense language for sanitized political-speak, they are caving to the whims of left-wing special interests and attempting to mask the grave threat that illegal immigration poses to our economy, our national security, and our sovereignty. My constituents know that illegal immigration by any other name is still illegal, and we should identify it as such. That is why my bill directs the Library of Congress to continue using the term ‘illegal alien’ just as they were previously. Hopefully this bill will give Washington the push needed to stop thinking up the most politically correct ways to describe illegal immigration and start thinking about solutions to address it.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), meanwhile, requested in a letter to the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations that language be included in the fiscal year 2017 legislative branch appropriations bill prohibiting the use of funds by the Library of Congress to eliminate “alien” and “illegal alien” subject headings.
“The library’s attempt to unilaterally censor these terms, disregards their meaning and use in the current United States code,” Turner said. “By acting in the interest of partisanship, the Library of Congress is undermining its credibility and ignoring its responsibility to provide the American people with impartial and accurate access to its many resources.”